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Alberta Odell Jones

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"Alberta Jones" redirects here. For the biologist, see Alberta Jones Seaton.

Alberta Odell Jones
BornNovember 12, 1930
Louisville, Kentucky
DiedAugust 5, 1965(1965-08-05) (aged 34)
Louisville, Kentucky
NationalityAmerican
Alma materLouisville Municipal College
Howard University School of Law
Occupation(s)Attorney, Activist

Alberta Odell Jones (November 12, 1930 – August 5, 1965) was an African-American attorney and civil rights icon. She was one of the first African-American women to pass the Kentucky bar and the first woman appointed city attorney in Jefferson County.[1] She was murdered by an unknown person.

Family

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Jones was born in Louisville, Kentucky on November 12, 1930, to Odell and Sarah (Sadie) Crawford Jones.[2]

Education

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Jones graduated from Louisville Central High School in 1948.[3] She then attended Louisville Municipal College (LMC), which later merged with the University of Louisville during desegregation, and majored in accounting.[4] Jones graduated third in her class. She attended the University of Louisville Law School for one year, transferring to Howard University School of Law for her degree, graduating fourth in her class in 1959.[5][2] During her time at Howard University, Jones served on the staff of the Howard Law journal and worked as a student counselor. Upon graduating, she had several interviews in Washington and Senator John Sherman Cooper offered his office as a study space for the bar exam.[4]

Career and activism

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In 1959, upon admission to the Kentucky bar the same year she received her law degree, Jones became Kentucky's first practicing African-American woman attorney.[2] The day after receiving the notification that she had passed the bar, Jones had already accepted her first case. As she explained to the Courier Journal, "This girl I know asked me four years ago - when she separated from her husband - to handle her divorce. I promised I would if I made the grade."[4]

In 1960, She eventually took on a prominent client early in her career, a young boxer who later changed his name from Cassius Clay to Muhammed Ali, introducing him to trainer Archie Moore of California. She was appointed in February 1965 to the Louisville Domestic Relations Court, where she was a prosecutor.[5]

Activism

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Jones was active in the civil rights movement, taking part in protest marches in Louisville and attending the March on Washington in August 1963. Upon returning from Washington she formed the Independent Voters Association of Louisville and was very involved with the Louisville chapter of the Urban League. She rented voting machines and taught African Americans how to use the machines to vote. She was also active in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Another of her causes was a fundraising effort to pay the medical bills of a young man, James "Bulky" Welch, who lost his arms saving his dog trapped under a train, purchasing him prosthetic arms by auctioning a car.[6]

Unsolved murder

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On August 5, 1965, Jones was murdered.[2] Her killing was first attributed to drowning and her body was retrieved from the Ohio River. However, her car was found several blocks from the Sherman Minton Bridge with blood inside and a subsequent autopsy determined that she had been subjected to several severe blows to the head before entering the water.[7]

Jones' murder was one of six unsolved murders in the area that year. On September 28, 1965, a Courier Journal headline declared "300 Interviewed in Jones Murder" and the article announced Police Chief William E. Bindner's plan to increase of police patrols in Louisville's West End.[8] The investigation determined that she had been beaten unconscious with a brick and witnesses recalled seeing a body tossed by three unidentified men from the bridge, where her purse was later found.[9]

In 2017, efforts were made to reopen the Jones case and it became a cause célèbre. Detectives involved in the initial investigation were interviewed in the hope that new leads had surfaced over the 52 years since the killing.[10] Professor and attorney Lee Remington, who was doing research for a biography, found clues to the murder and sent a letter to the Louisville police, who agreed to reopen the case. The civil rights division of the Department of Justice also began an investigation. The investigation is funded by a new law, the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which provides $13.5 million annual funds to the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute pre-1970 killings.[11] Her killing remains unsolved.[7]

Legacy

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In October 2022, Louisville Central High School presented the first ever Alberta O. Jones award to Laura Rothstein, a retired University of Louisville law professor who helped start the high school's law and government magnet program.[3] The award, which may not be given annually, is said to be intended for "those who have worked as hard as Jones to make their community a better place."[12]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Gabriel, Trip (September 19, 2017). "A 'Quest for Justice' for a Murdered Civil Rights Pioneer, 52 Years Later". The New York Times.
  2. ^ a b c d The Kentucky African American encyclopedia. Gerald L. Smith, Karen Cotton McDaniel, John A. Hardin. Lexington, Kentucky. 2015. ISBN 978-0-8131-6066-5. OCLC 913829084.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  3. ^ a b "Central High School awards first-ever Alberta O. Jones Award to former UofL Dean of Law". WDRB. October 28, 2022. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Porter, Marion (September 15, 1959). "Woman Passes Law Test: First Negro in Kentucky". Louisville Courier Journal. Retrieved February 17, 2017.
  5. ^ a b "Jones, Alberta O." Notable Kentucky African Americans Database. University of Kentucky. Retrieved April 13, 2019.
  6. ^ Sonka, Joe (October 9, 2017). "Alberta Jones banner unveiled in downtown Louisville". Archived from the original on February 13, 2019. Retrieved February 12, 2019.
  7. ^ a b "The 52-year mystery of Alberta Jones' murder covered on front page of The New York Times". Insider Louisville. September 20, 2017. Archived from the original on February 13, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  8. ^ "300 Interviewed in Jones Murder: West End Police Increased". Louisville Courier Journal. September 28, 1965. Retrieved February 11, 2017.
  9. ^ "Who killed Alberta Jones, Louisville's first black female prosecutor?". The Washington Post. October 9, 2017. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
  10. ^ "Inside Investigations: Who Killed Alberta Jones?". WHAS11. May 7, 2018.
  11. ^ Lee, Felicia R. (October 3, 2008). "Seeking Justice for Victims of Terror Long Ago". The New York Times.
  12. ^ Kwangwari, Munashe (October 28, 2022). "Former UofL law professor receives high honor for creating Central High School's law program". WLKY. Retrieved February 24, 2023.
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